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Why a New Icon?

While Valentine’s Day is about the expression of romantic love, the holiday has engendered the opposite feeling of hate by becoming generic with mass-produced, off-the-shelf solutions; divisive with the exclusion of singles; stressful with the pressure of getting the right token of affection; and obnoxious with visual clichés of hearts and explosions of red. The Valentine icon is a modest attempt at simplifying this overwrought holiday by providing a single, simple visual gesture to express romantic love.

Can I Use it?

Yes! The Valentine is meant to be embraced by everyone and used in any way possible. EXCEPT for commercial purposes, since a big part of the problem of Valentine’s Day is its rampant commercialization. The Valentine is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license. You don’t have to attribute anyone in reality, but CC has discontinued non-Attribution licenses.

See the column on the left to download the files that best suit your needs.

Where the does The Valentine come from?

Among all the visual manifestations of Valentine’s, one stands apart as a recurring icon. The heart.

But the heart is not unique to Valentine’s Day.

By drawing from the heart’s symmetric anatomy and curved structure we arrive at a new, exclusive icon: The Valentine.

The Valentine stands for unity, simplicity, and partnership. It also makes the shape of a “V.”

Why?

In mid-January 2010, on the generous recommendation of fellow design chronicler Alissa Walker, we were invited by Studio 360 — the beloved Public Radio International show hosted by Kurt Andersen — to tackle a rather interesting problem: Redesigning Valentine's Day, everything from the hearts, to the roses, to the chocolates, to the expensive dinners, to Cupid. Everything we know about Valentine's was due for a new approach. Now you might think, who would want to come up with this challenge in the first place? Well, Studio 360 has posed similar challenges in the past: Pentagram was asked to redesign Christmas in 2006 and Worldstudio to redesign the gay flag in 2009. Of course, we said yes. Yes, to a project that we had to finish in less than two weeks, with no pay, and without any precedents to refer to. Regardless, we decided to approach it just as we would any identity or branding project. The results of this endeavor, along with the process that got us there can be seen here in full and Studio 360 has the full audio scoop.